Monday, November 30, 2009

Point Lobos end to end

My last day in California I wanted to go to one of my most favorite places ever. Point Lobos State Park.
I started going here when I was about 18 and can hardly stand to visit my parents without going there at least once. It's not extremely big but there are really nice easy hiking trails through the whole thing along the coast. I've been on almost all of them but I wanted to go hike the whole thing from end to end. My mom came along and dropped me off at the beginning, she hiked the first two mile loop with me, ate a lunch of bread and cheese with me at whalers cove, and picked me up at the end.

The weather was perfect, the waves weren't too high or too boring and it wasn't windy at all. It was pretty much a perfect day... if only I hadn't gotten poison oak.

This is the northern most end of the park looking south. In my opinion it has some of the best views, it's totally flat, and it's always the least crowded.

Here's the 360 degree video standing on Granite Point.

It starts out looking South at Big Dome in the distance with Cannery Point in front of it, then you see Whaler's Cove (it's big), Coal Chute Point comes along looking all picturesque with it's cypress trees, The Pit is between it and me. After a kind of boring view of some small mountains you see Moss Cove, The end of Granite Point, my mom, Monterey Bay, and then Big Dome again.

This is at the end of the little trail to "The Pit" a little stony beach with big waves and a little arch you can walk under at low tide.

This is at the northern most point of the park, Moss Cove, the beach isn't part of the park. In that field behind my mom was saw a bobcat!

After lunch it was time for some of the steeper trails...
Going up from Whaler's Cove to Cannery Point.

Looking out over Bluefish Cove along the Northshore Trail. One time I had a picnic on that little grassy meadow at the bottom of the picture but you're not supposed to go down there anymore.

This is one of my favorite views in the park, looking out across Cypress Cove. It's especially nice when the surf is rough.

This view isn't so bad either...also on the Cypress Loop Trail. I saw a framed print of this view in a gallery in Park City once.

Along the Southshore Trail is Sandhill Cove and Weston Beach where there's lot of good tidepools. That's my mom out there.

What I would have given for a good pair of hip waders right here.

After one slippery close call I decided to settle for sea anemones, chitons, limpets, and tidepooljohnnys. It sure would have been nice to see a few nudibranchs though.

I was pretty disappointed and I took it out on these anemones. Sometimes I'm a jerk.

On Hidden Beach. I left with a pocket of these pretty rocks for one of my jars.

My mom rejoined me on the Bird Island Loop and we were silly with our shadows.

Four arches in one shot, plus I'm standing on one. Are they called arches or bridges when they're by the ocean? I think they're bridges and I've been in Utah too long.

For years the stairs down to China Cove have been washed out but they were finally fixed this time.

My mom didn't want to go down them and I ended up having the whole beach to myself. I took off my shoes and enjoyed myself.

macrocystispyrifera
(funner than popping bubble wrap)

The ocean, the sea, the coast, the bay, the beach, the Pacific...home, happiness, peace...

Ahhhh....

I went over too see the sun setting over Gibson Beach at the most southern end of the park before hiking out to the entrance gate where my mom picked me back up and took me home.

I'll take them both

Quotes I try to live by

"There's plenty of money out there. They print more every day. But this ticket, there's only five of them in the whole world, and that's all there's ever going to be. Only a dummy would give this up for something as common as money. Are you a dummy?" -Grandpa George

"Be a half-assed crusader, a part-time fanatic. Don’t worry to much about the fate of the world. Saving the world is only a hobby. Get out there and enjoy the world, your girlfriend, your boyfriend, husbands, wives; climb mountains, run rivers, get drunk, do whatever you want to do while you can, before it’s too late." –Edward Abbey

Life is hard? True- but let's love it anyhow, though it breaks every bone in our bodies. -Edward Abbey

"Candy doesn't have to have a point. That's why it's candy." -Charlie Bucket